


Only Hope Now

by ArlessaKay



Category: Fallout 4
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-22
Updated: 2017-01-22
Packaged: 2018-09-19 07:02:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9424493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArlessaKay/pseuds/ArlessaKay
Summary: When Vault 111 faced its fateful moments, more than one pre-war vault dweller stepped out of their cryogenic sleep.  Why did they survive when so many others didn't?  Why did Vault-Tech put them in there in the first place?Bombs fell and the world as they knew it ended, but they will do everything the can to survive and thrive in the world they've been forced into.**The first couple of chapters follow the early in game progression pretty closely, but will eventually break away.  Just like the game, it will take whatever path I have it choose for these particular survivors**





	1. Auto Defrost Setting: 200+ Years

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! This is my first Fallout fic, and the first fic that I've been brave enough to post on this website. Right now it's pretty tame, but I've set the rating at mature due to progressions that are in the works for the future. If I have a chapter that is particularly saucy, I will make sure to note it in case anyone is offended by stuff like that.

Were decontamination chambers supposed to be this cold? She had at least figured that there would be water, or steam. Not bone crushing cold and ice. Hopefully the vault would be nice and warm once they were done. This was going to be her life from here on out; hiding in an underground bunker away from the radiation outside. At least Thomas would be with her. He was already in the vault when the bombs started falling, setting everything up in the event of all-out war. He was the Overseer, after all. 

Her mind wandered for what seemed like forever.  
Fog subsided from the glass in front of her for a moment, allowing her to peer out into the metal walls. Her muscles suddenly ached, as though they hadn’t been used in years. Something felt weird, but maybe this was just the second portion of the decontamination cycle? Across the room she could see other people moving, almost panicking, inside of their chambers. Was there something she was missing? Was her pod the only one actually functioning properly? Maybe they were just claustrophobic. She wasn’t herself, but could see how someone else would be. There wasn’t much room to move. 

Almost as quickly as the fog disappeared, it was back. She let her mind wander again, wondering what the vault would be like. Hopefully it would be spacious, but something told her it wouldn’t. There would be lots of people, crowded together like livestock.  
‘You’re alive, Pasha. Stop fretting. You could be out there getting destroyed.’ Her thoughts came in waves, and she was dizzier than anything. The cycle must be complete; she could hear an alarm sounding somewhere in the distance. Whatever chemicals were in this decontamination process could not be good for her skin, judging by the strange rash she could feel forming across her chest. Her entire body ached, screaming out for some kind of relief. Surely they would have ibuprofen in the vault. Well, they’d better.

Again the fog began to dissipate, giving her another look at the chambers across from her. Now, however, it looked as though no one else was moving. Something definitely wasn’t right with all of this… Thomas would certainly have some explaining to do.

She glanced around almost lazily. Everything was a little fuzzy, like she had just been woken up from a very long nap. Suddenly, a pair of hands came crashing down onto the glass, eyes darting at her frantically. She jumped sharply, catching the back of her head on the metal of the chamber behind her. Deep, brown eyes locked onto hers, wide and crazed. The man leapt to the panel beside her chamber, slamming his hand down on the button. With a great ‘whoosh’ and a rush of warmth, the door opened and dropped her back into the vault.  
Something was different. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it, though. Slightly acrid and musty, the air around her caught her off guard. Someone must have spilled something on the floor, she thought. Once shiny and reflective, the metal floor had a thick layer of something mixed with dirt spread across it.

“You’re alive! Quick, we have to check the rest!” The man darted off, poking around at the panels to the other decontamination chambers. 

“Of course I’m alive. Why wouldn’t I be? Did something happen? Did the decontamination not work?” her head swam with every possible scenario, figuring that the bombs outside must have had some effect on the systems down here. Maybe they were stronger than they thought?

“Something happened. Someone…. Someone came and…. Everything is wrong….” After checking the last chamber, the man threw himself angrily at it, hands bashing on the cold, frosted glass. He was distressed, and she felt the need to try to calm him down. Rushing towards him, she planted a hand on his shoulder. 

“Hey, come on now! We’ll figure it out.” Like her mother used to do to her, she began rubbing small circles with the pads of her fingers, gingerly coaxing his skin. “Now, calm down for a second.” Pursing her lips and touching her teeth, she made light ‘shh’shing noises towards him. She continued rubbing the back of his shoulder until his muscles released a little, and he sunk down to the floor, hands splayed in the dust on the metal.  
“There we go. Now, tell me what happened? We need to tell the Overseer.” With a huff he threw his weight to the side, flipping himself over and crashing into the floor. His back slammed into the chamber behind him with a loud crash, echoing and reverberating off of the walls. 

“It’s all wrong. She’s dead, she… they took Shaun. They came in, shot Nora, and took him. And now, everybody is dead.” Tears coated his lashes as he wrenched his eyes closed. Normally at this point she would keep calming the other party, but something about this man screamed ‘crazy’. Perhaps he was being effected by the decontamination chemicals? Maybe they were giving him hallucinations, and he was imagining all of these insane things. 

Instead of going towards him and attempting to comfort him, she sat back on her heels and stared at him in awe.  
“Hold it, sir. What do you mean? Who is ‘they’? Did Vault-tech staff apprehend them? Surely the guards have them in custody.” Those deep brown eyes bore further into hers, a mix of confusion and terror soaking in.

“I haven’t seen any vault-tech staff since I got out of the cryo pod.” Wait, cryo pod?

“You were in a cryo pod? Did they not decontaminate you?” The man continued to stare at her, unblinking. It was starting to make her uneasy. 

“They didn’t… decontaminate…. What? You haven’t figured it out yet?” She stared back at him in response as she stood up, backing away from him.

“There’s nothing to figure out, sir. We were decontaminated, and now we’re going to go further into the vault. I think the chemicals must have messed with your mind. You seem to be hallucinating. We should get you to the infirmary, and have the Overseer-“ He stood as she talked, swinging around to the pod behind him. With a loud whoosh of air, she was silenced as he opened the chamber. Inside it was Mrs. Beatty, a sweet little old lady that lived across the street from Thomas. She brought him pies occasionally, and told them stories about her children. Her laughter was infectious, and she was almost always grinning from ear to ear.

Grinning is not what she would call this. It was a look of pure terror, eyes wide and panicked, fingers still twisted like claws, pressing against the glass. This was not Mrs. Beatty. It looked like her, but it couldn’t be. Fear was frozen – literally- on her face.  
Without thinking, she leapt forward to try and help her. It wasn’t until her fingers grasped the womans frozen wrists that she realized the truth of the situation. The man with the brown eyes was right; they were never decontaminated. Pasha still didn’t really understand what was going on, but at least now she had a sliver of trust for the man.

“What happened to them….” Timidly she reached out, fingertips grazing the twisted, icy form of Mrs. Beattys face. 

“Vault-tech did this. I don’t know why, but they froze us. All of us. And now there’s no one left.” While she took in the horrible sight, the man began to leave the room. Pausing in the doorway, he turned back to her.  
“Come on. We need to find a way out of here.”  


Her mind was numb, barely paying attention to anything as they rummaged through the dusty ruins of the vault. From what she could see, there was never any lower level. They were never going to go deeper into the vault. Cryogenic sleep was the only thing this hollow shell would have afforded them. Half watching what he was doing, she looked past the man with the brown eyes as he scavenged. He grabbed syringes, boxes of food, and IV bags filled with a sickly looking liquid. How could Thomas not have told her about this? Why would he lock her into that icy grave? 

Skeletons dotted the floor, but she wasn’t really prepared to see the scene in the main control room.

Thomas lay, scattered in pieces on the floor. At least, she thought it must be Thomas. He was wearing the pin she had given him for his birthday; she’d last seen it stuck to his blue 111 suit, greeting people at the door to the vault.

> _“You made it!” His arms wrapped around her shoulders, surrounding her in comfort._
> 
> _“It was horrible, Thomas. There was so much screaming, everyone running…” warm fingers tipped her chin to him, gingerly holding her head up. Fingers on his free hand grazed her cheek, wiping away the tears that formed._
> 
> _“Don’t worry, myshka. It will be okay. You’ll go into be decontaminated, and I’ll meet you below as soon as we make sure everyone is in.” He kissed her on the forehead, looking behind her. She tried to catch his gaze, but imagined he was fairly distracted by the amount of people._
> 
> _“Promise?” Her voice wavered slightly, still in shock from the bombs. This was not supposed to have happened…  
>  Finally his eyes met hers, glossier than she’d normally seen them._
> 
> _“I promise, Pasha. You are going to be okay. I will move mountains to make sure that happens.” With one last, delicate, kiss on the lips, he sent her off to get her vault suit. Before she disappeared down the hall, she spared one last glance back at him. Smiling, he waved her on her way.  
>  _

A voice broke through her fog

“Hey…. Hey! Are you coming?” the man stood at the door, waiting to exit the vault. Nodding, she bent down to the skeletal form in front of her. There was a nametag in his pocket, and she slipped it into her own. Following closely, she watched in terror as he killed a whole pack of what appeared to be giant, mutated bugs. 

The hallway opened up back into the entrance chamber, floors littered with skeletons and dust. After grabbing a pip boy from one of them, the man used it to open the door, letting the pair take the elevator back to the surface.


	2. The times, they are a changing

Sanctuary was nothing like she had remembered it. 

Once quaint and beautifully tended to, it was now falling victim to centuries of disrepair.  According to Nates robot, more than two centuries.  Multiple houses were no longer standing; Thomas’ included.  Pasha didn’t live there herself, but she spent much of her time there.

The next few days breezed past, leaving her behind in the dust.  She had chosen to stay in Sanctuary with Codsworth, leaving Nate to head off and find help in Concord.  Her reasoning was under the guise of an inability to protect herself, but truthfully she couldn’t bring herself to go back to Concord; she was not prepared to see what her home looked like if these ones were in such bad shape.

While Nate was gone, she busied herself with small things around the town: cleaning up trash in the streets, tending to the remaining plant life, and setting up a couple of beds in one of the houses.  Consolidation was her primary goal, so she searched through the remaining houses and gathered as much usable gear as she could.  Luckily, some food and water had been among these items.  At least she knew she wouldn’t starve….today. 

When Nate returned, he was no longer alone.  In fact, he had a small group of survivors with him. 

“You’re all welcome to spread out if you’d like, this is your home now.” Nate approached her, escorting them into the now tidy area.

“Nate!  What did you find?  What did Concord look like?”   
“It was pretty much destroyed, filled with raiders and these few survivors.  I told them they were welcome here.”  He glanced around the area.  “You’ve been busy!”  
“Yeah, I had to come up with something to stop from focusing on my crippling fear and anxiety.” Brown eyes blinked back at her.  “It was a joke.  Ha-ha?” No movement from him. “Not a very good one, I guess.” She sighed deeply, and momentary silence hung between them.

“Anyway, I found some supplies- everything is sorted out in the house with the workbench.  I tried to corral everything into one space.  Well, at least everything that wasn’t a pile of destroyed junk.” One of the survivors approached them.

“Preston, this is Pasha.  She’s the other cryo-survivor I told you about.”  The man called Preston held out his hand to her, grime and dust caking it.  Her eyes followed his hand up his arm, taking in the filth that clung to his jacket, up to his surprisingly clean shaven face and strange hat.  In his other hand was what looked to be a gun, but with strange glowing lasers flying around inside of it.  Not wanting to be rude, she gingerly shook his hand and immediately wiped hers on the leg of her vault suit as conspicuously as she could.   
“Hello, good to meet you.  The Commonwealth is a rough place; we’re all gonna have to work together if we’re going to make it better.  Speaking of, Nate, I was wondering if you might be able to help with something else.  I’ve gotten word from a settlement that could use our help.  These people need the minutemen again- they need the hope that there is more to this life than constantly being attacked by the raiders, ferals, and everything else in out there.  We need to bring them that hope.” Nate nodded in response, and the two shook hands.    
“Excellent!  I’ll upload the location to the map on your pip-boy.  We’ll save the Commonwealth, one settlement at a time.”

Nate was taking all of this much better than she was.  All she could see was his outward expressions and actions, but she wondered if behind all of his stoic silence was a bit more feeling.  He’d lost his wife and son in what felt like mere minutes, and he wasn’t even showing any signs of duress. 

“Oh hey, Preston?” Pasha called out to him before he could walk away.  “I found some water that doesn’t smell like death, and also some old pre-war boxed food.  I honestly don’t know if it will make you sick or not, but if people are hungry it might be worth a go.  I, uh… I don’t really know what… what things are like at this point.  But if I can help in any way, just let me know.”  He smiled, clapping a hand to her shoulder.   
“You’ve already helped a lot.  A lot of that pre-war stuff was so pumped full of preservatives that it’s fine to eat today.  They actually sell it in a lot of merchant carts.  Thanks.  And we’ll make sure that these people do their part to keep this settlement running too.  Together, we’ve got this under control.” Nodding his head in Nates direction, he headed off and continued patrolling the perimeter.

“They’re good people.  I’m shocked by the things they’ve been through.  Will you be okay here with them while I head off and try and help these people?  Plus, mama murphy told me to go to a place called Diamond City; maybe someone there can help me find my son.”   
“Okay, 1, I know them just about as well as I do you. So you do what you have to, don’t worry about me. And 2, Diamond City?  That’s a town? Or like, a jewelry store? I just don’t know what’s going on. Yesterday, some wild dogs came through town, biting and tearing all over the place.  I hid in the basement of that house until they left.  Preston has that weird gun… I already feel safer.” Briefly, a smile passed across his face.

“Actually…” He turned around, looking off towards the horizon.  “Where did he get off to….” Nate whistled, calling for something she couldn’t see.  A few seconds later, a large four legged shadow crested the hill.  As it got closer, she made out the form of a dog.  Heart pounding, she had a thought that it may be like the ones from the day before.  When she saw its reaction to Nate, however, that thought quickly dissipated.  Instead, she was left with all of the warm feelings that a happy dog provides.  Finally, something in this world that is like she remembered it.

A high pitched sort of squeal came from her, and she found herself crouching down and wrapping her arms around the dog.   
“Dogmeat, this is Pasha.  Will you take care of her and the others while I’m away?” As if it was able to understand him, the dog barked in response, tilted his head to look at Pasha, and then hit her with a big, slobbery tongue in the face. 

All Pasha knew at that moment was that she could trust her four legged friend.  She didn’t realize that he would sleep cuddled up to her every night, keeping her warm.  Or that he would rarely leave her side during the day, making sure that nothing brought her harm.  It didn’t take them long to form that bond, but it was one that would be very hard to break.    


End file.
